Qld nurses launch campaign against cuts

FURIOUS Queensland nurses will mount a campaign to fight job cuts that are being carried out by stealth in the state's hospitals, a union says.

About 200 nurses holding signs saying "RIP Public Health System" and "Can Do Better" rallied against the cuts outside the Prince Charles Hospital in northern Brisbane on Thursday.

The Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) says more than 25 surgery beds had been cut and 28.5 full-time nursing jobs abolished at that hospital, including more than 20 in surgery wards.

QNU acting secretary Des Elder told the crowd that the state government had been cutting frontline nursing jobs and keeping workers in the dark.

He called on all health workers and communities in Queensland to get involved in highlighting the cuts and fighting them.

The protesters passed a motion "to immediately form a campaign committee to co-ordinate tasks and responsibilities to ensure frontline health workers can continue to deliver safe and high quality health care".

QNU's Bridget Lord said the government was cutting jobs by stealth and it needed to be held accountable.

"They've shut a couple of beds here and moved a couple of nurses on there, but it adds up to about 300 nurses losing their jobs since this government came to power," she told AAP.

"These are people who provide clinical services - nursing directors, surgical nurses, nursing teachers for transplants, the people who work in ... chemotherapy."

Ms Lord said it was important that the public understood the full impact of the changes.

"This is about health service provision," she said.

"Little by little, our health services in Queensland are being chipped away."